Slytherins in the attic
by ElrueFaerie
Summary: Draco is on the run from both Aurors and Death Eaters. While searching for Kreacher Hermione encounters the last person she ever thought she would see...the last person she ever thought she would ever save.
1. In a Cleft Stick

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, the characters, or anything else that was originally by J.K Rowling. I also did not create this for profit or make any money off its existence.

_All allusion phrases and their meanings were found at .._

_"Skeletons in the closet" - A secret source of shame, potentially ruinous if exposed, which a person or family makes efforts to conceal._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

CHAPTER 1

"_In a Cleft Stick"- In a position where advance and retreat are both impossible; in a fix._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cold and alone, Draco had been running for the better part of four months.

At least, that's what he thought. His last rummage through the trash a few weeks ago had given him the most recent date from some Muggle newspaper, but even now he couldn't remember how many days and nights he had spent running since that last brush with civilization.

Draco huffed in an attempt to laugh. Civilization. Nothing more than a few dilapidated barns on Muggle farms at the edge of the forest. How could any human being stand to live in something so dirty and bare? No servants or magic to do their chores for them. Their houses were barely furnished and nothing particularly tasteful existed within them. It would be an affront to his heritage and the Wizarding community to be caught in anything below radiance.

Yet there he was, sleeping amongst the Muggle families' animals at night. Stealing their scraps of food and hiding during the day within the forest until it was safe enough to slip into a hay loft to sleep amongst the rats and the insects that resided there as well.

It was not a few hours ago that Draco had been on his way back to the hay when the most overpowering scent caught his attention. The Muggle farmer's wife had left the window open as she bustled around the kitchen cooking. Before he knew what he was doing, Draco had pulled his wand from his tattered robes and began levitating food straight from the table and out the window to his outstretched hands.

He hadn't counted on the Muggle farmer to be in the house, nor the hysterics that had ensued when he witnessed a batch of cookies hovering in the air. Draco's feet had also betrayed him at some point in his thievery, moving him out of the shadows and into the eyesight of the Muggle's wife, who screamed and pointed to the bandit, already holding a mince pie in his hand.

Producing an item that looked like an iron double ended broom stick in his hands, the farmer had run out of the house, chasing Draco away. Loud blasts, probably from the item, had sounded and the trees he ran towards seemed to blow up around him. What the hell kind of magic was that?

No, not magic. Whatever the Muggle contraption had been, it was dangerous and Draco could still smell the sulfur that had hung in the air around him as he ran from the farmer. The mince pie was lost in the flurry of events and Draco continued to run through the forest, his legs pumping forcefully, until he could no longer breathe

Out of breath and panting, he collapsed into the weeds covering the ground. Snape had saved him from Azkaban, but would it really be any worse than what he was enduring now? He swore under his breath at the thought. How the hell was he going to survive this mess? After pulling him from Hogwarts' grounds, Snape and Draco had continuously hidden from the onslaught of teachers and students who had gone searching for them. They ran from shadow to shadow until Snape had pushed Draco away, telling him to run. For, if Snape had brought him back to headquarters, the Dark Lord would have surely killed Draco for his failure. As it was, Snape would most likely be punished by the Dark Lord for not bringing Draco back with him. So, why hadn't he?

Instead of taking Draco back to the Death Eaters, Snape had let him make an attempt to escape. Still, he had warned him in hushed tones not to trust anyone or to be seen by wizards, especially someone who could alert either side of his whereabouts.

Draco banged his fists against a nearby tree in frustration. The bark grated against his skin, leaving shallow bleeding cuts on his hands. Rolling over to lay flat on the ground, he looked up at the treetops and tried to think, like he had done almost every night since his escape, of someone who could help him.

His mind racked through Slytherins and teachers alike, but none would have cared the slightest about his problems now. No one in any of the other houses would lift a finger for him either. Scared for their own lives, or just scared of him.

Crabbe and Goyle would sooner turn him in than help. Stupid as they were, they had been his left and right hands all through school, taking orders from Draco as a Death Eater did from Voldemort. Draco shivered in the night air at the analogy. They were attracted to power more than they were loyal friends. They served the strongest wizard which, up until a few months ago, had been Draco through their six years at Hogwarts.

No. They would definitely be working for the Dark Lord now. He would be using their friendship as an advantage to catch Draco.

His thoughts moved on to Pansy, the girl who had given him so many pleasures, both physically and emotionally. She had been the one to support him in his status as a Prefect, standing beside him and aiding him in picking on those who were weak. Smarter than Crabbe or Goyle, she had spied on various people for him, alerting him of rumors or taking matters into her own hands for his protection from those who defied him.

The nights they had slipped into empty classrooms to avoid the Slytherin Common Room whispers as they ravished one another on the cold stone walls and hard wooden desks also entered Draco's thoughts. His cock hardened at the thought of her hands on his body as she brought him to his peak.

But she had been just like the rest of them; addicted to the power and money Draco would inherit, sooner rather than later once his father had landed himself in Azkaban. Draco never fooled himself to be in love with Pansy, however he believed she would have, if the chance had arisen, died for him. Yet, she would have given him up to the highest bidder and betrayed him for anything that would be to her advantage. She had been there to watch him follow in his father's footsteps from the moment he had set foot in Hogwarts.

And he had. Like his father, Draco had fallen from the grace of his riches, his family, and his loyalties. He had grown attached to his lifestyle, haughtiness and snobbery bringing him to believe he was above all others, and then, in what was meant to be his moment of triumph and glory, the moment in which he was to prove himself to everyone around him, he too had failed the Dark Lord.

He hadn't been able to do it. In the end, Draco was no more a killer than he was a true Death Eater.

At the thought, he absently scratched the Dark Mark on his arm. It burned on occasion, but only itched at the memories of that night, the night Dumbledore had been murdered. His face, as the Avada Kadavra curse had hit him accentuated his pitiful expression with pallid green light before he fell ridged on the wet grounds, would not leave Draco's mind. It had been burned into the very backs of his eyelids whenever he closed his eyes. Every time he slept, the event would play itself over and over, until he was upright in a cold sweat and shouting into the darkness.

Something had to be done. Somewhere, someone had to be willing to help him. He was in a dead space. Aurors and Death Eaters alike were after him now. Not one side, good or evil, would claim him and he neither needed nor wanted to show allegiance to either. For the first time in his life he wished he were Muggle-born, free of the war and the knowledge of the things he was left to face.

Draco laughed hollowly at the thought.

He shivered and curled his legs into his chest in an attempt to warm himself. The autumn air blew colder each night, soon it would be winter and snow would cover him like a blanket. He worried about using his magic during the night. A fire would be seen from the houses in the town below, and a heating charm would only last a few minutes until he fell asleep and was unable to sustain it. Nothing more than a miracle was going to help him now.

What was he going to do?

***

Hermione checked the time on the clock perched on the wall above her head. She had been standing there more than 5 minutes now, too long not to start attracting stares. Another minute and she would abandon her post in front of the store. Where were they?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Ron stuck out his head from around the corner opposite of her. He nodded curtly, waiting for her to return the gesture and disappeared from sight again. Hermione moved from her post, crossing the street towards where she knew Ron had been standing, and slipped into a small eyeglass shop on the corner, even though the sign on the door clearly read 'closed.'

Once inside, she locked the door behind her and shut the blinds. Several soft pops were heard and the cloaked figures of Ron, Harry, Ginny, George, Fred, and Tonks appeared in front of her.

They had, with the help of a contact within the Ministry, procured a spot in the middle of London to meet in private. However, being that it was used as a public dwelling it had no secret keeper, and was to be used only in dire emergencies, with charms and such set around it. Tonks removed her hood and wrung her hands together, immediately looking nervous. "I shouldn't be doing this," she said for what was probably the fifth time in three days.

"If your mother found out I was helping you to use this place as your own secret hideout, she'd hex me into the next lifetime!" To emphasize this point she looked around just be sure Mrs. Weasley wasn't, in fact, standing there already with her wand raised.

Ron and Harry exchanged uneasy glances while Fred and George rolled their eyes. "Hardly anything to worry about there, I would think," said George as he pulled out his wand and began helping Hermione re-enforce a few silencing spells. "Mad Eye and Lupin are in on it too, you mentioned," finished Fred. "And Mom wouldn't dare question them."

"Yes," agreed Tonks, though her face was dark. "But that's mostly chalked up to the reasoning that they didn't tell her either. If you lot had kept to the house instead of following us on that last mission, you wouldn't be here. I suppose it's just as well now that you've become mixed up in this, but none of you have the appropriate training to run around on your own. I'm just here to keep an eye on you lot."

"Good. Down with the ship and all that rot then, eh? Give us a hand with this." George and Fred each spoke a sentence as they made to move a large bookcase from the wall.

"What's upstairs?" Hermione asked Tonks trying to block out memories of the previous week. "Just a small loft and bathroom. Hardly worth a second look, really, but we thought it may come in handy if someone were injured nearby." Hermione nodded and sat down on a rickety looking stool behind the register.

Ron was examining the wall across from her. It was filled with small wooden drawers and a few scattered mirrors hung between them. Ron's freckled hand reached for the worn knobs and opened a few, occasionally finding a box of reading spectacles or cleaning pads. Harry looked grim as Ginny sat beside him on a long bench propped up against the wall Ron was examining. The room was haphazard at best and extremely crowded with all the wizards crammed inside, but it was clean and would suit them for a few hours.

Tonks cleared her throat and Hermione's thoughts broke as she concentrated on the woman. Tonks' hair was sheared short and dyed almost platinum blonde with a black underbelly of hair by her neck; a few tattoos and she'd fit right in with the Muggle punk crowd of London. Everyone else grew quiet and turned to look at her again.

"Report. Twins, you first," she stated simply and boldly. Hermione gathered that Tonks was doing her best to act as the leader of their soiree and felt a surge of guilt at the thought.

The twins hadn't found anything helpful in their evening search of the elf. They mentioned Mundungus Feltcher's appearance hawking some more of Sirius' silverware in Knockturn Alley, who suffered from a few accidental explosion charms sent his way each time he tried to sell something to a bystander. After receiving a face full of soot six times in a row Mundungus had finally given up, throwing his bag away from him and running down the alley claiming the items were cursed. Fred produced a small sack of stolen items which George tossed at Harry, who was scowling darkly at the identical twins for blowing up some of Sirius' things. "Aw, c'mon, Harry! Lighten up, mate." George grinned as Harry inspected its contents. "If we hadn't had some fun with him, old Dung would have sold all the stuff he'd nicked from Grimmauld Place."

"This way you still have a full set for one to eat with…well, maybe two halves of a person!" Fred snickered as Harry pulled out a spoon and two knives from the bag.

Tonks rolled her eyes and moved on. "Hermione? Ron? What did you find?" Ron twirled a set of thin rimmed glasses in his hands and Hermione shook her head dismally. "Nothing, aside from a few ghost stories," Ron grumbled.

Harry's attention left the silverware to stare at Ron while Ginny's face went a little pink. Hermione sighed. "He's right. Some farmers near Thetford claimed there were ghouls in their haylofts at night, or that something out in the fields was keeping the animals at unrest." Hermione missed the look that Ginny and Harry sent her way. Every other face in the room looked bored, but the two of them seemed to be hanging on each word as she spoke. She was too busy thinking of the last few nights spent alone with Ron. While their relationship remained as platonic as ever, a few things had changed between them. They were more nervous around one another than usual, and occasionally Hermione would catch Ron staring at her for no particular reason. She had let herself hope, just a little, that he would be seeing in her whatever it was she had seen in him these last few years, but the two would quickly set to arguing again shortly after followed by long hours of sour silence. After six years, Hermione was definitely losing hope.

Harry cleared his throat. "We heard something similar just North of there, over in Brandon. Some woman was raving about her pies floating right out the window about a week ago. She claimed her husband had seen some kind of spirit in the woods and taken a shotgun to it."

The room went silent as they mulled over the possibilities. Ron glanced at the twins who shrugged their shoulders and Tonks tried to look as though she understood what Harry had said, even though 'shotgun' was as foreign a word to them as 'pigmy puff' would be to an adult wizard.

Something about what Harry was saying bothered Hermione. The group was in pursuit of the house elf, Kreacher, who had left Grimmauld Place. While she could hardly call Kreacher a ghost, Hermione believed a Muggle could mistake him for at least a gnome or troll of some kind. Then again, something about these stories was not quite right. Kreacher was not free in any sense of the word, and living out in the open wilderness like that suggested some degree of autonomy. This could be a trap, but the fact the same information was gathered in two different locations at the same time made it quite unlikely. She considered this along with the rest of the information Harry had given her.

"There's definitely some use of magic, no matter how we spin it." She concluded out loud after a few moments. Tonks nodded in agreement and the rest of the room tensed as she picked up on Hermione's train of thought. "At the very least, there's someone with the ability to levitate things hiding out in the forest over there. We should check it out, starting with Thetford, seeing as that holds the more recent sightings."

They all nodded somberly and Tonks let out a wide yawn. Blushing slightly, she glanced at the clock perched behind Hermione and gave a little sigh. "We should get a look tonight before whomever or whatever moves on to another area. There are still a few hours until nightfall. I'll leave you lot to rest up while I inform Moody of the situation. We'll meet two hours after sunset on Brandon Road just west of the town." Tonks wrapped her cloak around her and strode over to the door, releasing a few charms to allow her to Disapparate. She looked back over her shoulder intending to glare at the children standing in the room, but looked sullen and slightly annoyed instead. It was a look they all recognized from Molly when she was exasperated at them. "Try…" she paused as she took another look around the room, and then shook her head with another inwards sigh. "Try to stay safe while I'm gone." And with that, she popped out of the small room.

As Hermione walked over to the door to reinforce the charms, while the rest of the group lay out a few sleeping bags, she had the feeling Tonks had meant to say something else before leaving. She decided that "Try not to do anything stupid" would have fit just as nicely.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

**Author's Notes:**

Please Read and Review. It makes me happy :D

I tried to stick as close to the books as possible, but somewhere in the plot things got out of hand-so it's post HBP with some differences, but they're pretty minor.

And Thank you to my Beta, Carolib!


	2. Left in the Lurch

_All allusion phrases and their meanings were found at ._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

CHAPTER 2

"_Left in the Lurch" - Abandoned in a difficult position without help_ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was nearly pitch black when the group reassembled by the turnabout of Brandon Road. In front of them stretched the sleepy town of Thetford. Most of the homes had extinguished their lights for the evening, while a few pubs kept them glittering in the darkness. To the northwest was a golf course, which was closed during the night. The only light reaching out came from the small clubhouse up the road. There was no traffic passing them on the street, but the small contingent of wizards held their wands at the ready just in case.

A few days ago, they would have felt nervous and twitchy as they waited for the Aurors to arrive. Now they were tired and worn, used to the stress of worry and more cautious with their actions. It had been their own idea to follow the Aurors out of Grimmauld Place in pursuit of Kreacher, the Black family house elf. He had run off with the Black Family Locket, which he had successfully hidden during the group 'housecleaning' over a year ago, in attempt to stop Harry and the others from destroying the Horcrux. Ginny, who had overheard him while he mumbled under his breath after dinner one night, followed him to the attic where she found him in possession of a Portkey that released him out into the world for a short time. A general ruckus had ensued as she had tried to wrestle it away from him, coupled with Harry who had apparently seen Ginny as she crept along the hallways in pursuit of the house elf.

In truth, as Hermione had been told later that evening in the secrecy of her and Ginny's room, Ginny and Harry had really snuck out of the dining room for a quick snog before bed. Hiding in the attic, Kreacher had gone up there to use the Portkey, but instead he was met with the unsightly view of the two half dressed teenagers. He had begun to shout obscenities at them when Harry, still blaming the elf for the death of Sirius, had launched an attack on him to keep him quiet before the whole house could find out what he and Ginny were up to. Kreacher had dodged the charm and went scuttling to the spot where both the Locket and Portkey had been hidden, leading to his escape.

Regardless of Harry and Ginny's quick action, the adults had heard the shouts upstairs and arrived barely in time to keep Harry from jumping through the Portkey himself after the elf. Once a search party had been organized, and the attic locked to keep the teens from following, the Aurors had left the house. However, Harry and Ginny still felt responsible for their secret escapade, the guilt eventually convincing them to find alternate means of leaving the safety of the Black household on their own. Hermione had first made an attempt to keep Harry from leaving the house and its protection, but that had been a short conversation. With the help of Mrs. Black's portrait, the group was able to distract Mrs. Weasley and anyone else in the house from noticing as they snuck out the front. After their first night of being out on their own, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny had run into Fred and George who were returning from a meeting with their skiving snack boxes supplier on the outskirts of Diagon Alley. Being that the twins were commonly the start of mischief, it took less than seconds for the two boys to recognize the group was not stopping in for a friendly visit. They had spent the night reviewing and planning with the Aurors and the next morning Tonks had directed everyone to the small meeting stall in London where they had met only hours before.

Something stirred in the distance and shook Hermione from her reverie. A figure walked slowly up the road and Harry nudged Hermione and Ron on either side of him with his elbows. The twins and Ginny melted into the trees behind them and they all raised their wands a little in defense. When the newcomer stopped about fifty feet away from where the group stood a small pulse of light blinked three times from their wand. This was the signal identifying Tonks, and warning them that the Aurors were already in the town.

Harry muttered a short spell and his wand blinked slowly three times to match the signal Tonks had given. After a few moments the seven cloaked figures joined and walked towards a silo at the edge of a farm house down the road. A few commands were whispered and the group split up into teams. The twins marched to the east of the town while Ginny and Tonks walked west. Harry, Ron and Hermione ventured south passing a few small homes and moving over the wide expanse of what might have been a school. Hermione stopped and frowned at the surroundings as they passed a basketball hoop. Harry and Ron stopped a few feet ahead and turned to look at her.

"Hermione? What is it?" Harry asked, coming back up to stand by her. Ron crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently as if to say she always seemed to stop them short of getting somewhere first. She scowled at him in the darkness and pointed behind her at the school. "Harry, this isn't right. Notice anything out of place about this school?"

Harry frowned for a moment, his forehead wrinkled in concentration. It looked no different than the schools he and Dudley had attended in his years before Hogwarts. In fact, it looked like any normal school in England. It was maybe a little smaller than where he had gone, but inside there probably were the same desks and blackboards every Montessori had. There were probably even kids just like his cousin who would beat up the smaller, weaker students who couldn't defend themselves like he had; but that was before he'd learned magic and…A sudden realization hit him.

"This is a Muggle town," he whispered and turned to see Ron had backtracked and joined the conversation. "This school," he pointed behind Hermione. "It's a Muggle school."

Ron's face scrunched up in thought and Hermione almost laughed in spite of the situation. It was a face she rarely saw on him, one that meant he was thinking. She often noticed it when Ron was focusing on a game of Wizard's Chess planning his next move, or coming up with a creative reason to con her into helping with his class work at Hogwarts.

"But why would Kreacher hide in a Muggle community? He hates anything to do with them," he asked, finally reaching Hermione's point.

"He wouldn't! Whoever, whatever is here, is not Kreacher," Hermione supplied, feeling panicky.

Just then, there was a crackle of light and the three looked up in time to see red sparks dissolving into the night sky. Without a word they ran toward the emergency call through a few trees and down a hill finally stopping beside a river, where Ginny leaned against a tree looking pale. She was wet up to her knees, having crossed the river as she ran. Bits of leaves and bracken clung to her hair and torn robes. Harry noticed she was holding her left arm in an awkward position as he sped up to meet her.

"Death Eaters!" She squeaked, pointing towards another clump of houses across the shallow water. "Someone must have known we were coming!" Ron reached his sister first, prying her away from the tree trunk to lean on him.

"How many are there?" Harry asked.

"Not many, maybe four. Tonks sent up the warning when I got hit by a jinx. The rest of the Aurors should be there by now."

"They're still outnumbered." Hermione counted, figuring Lupin and Moody were helping Tonks. "Can you walk?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes, but I think my arm is broken."

Ron held her tighter and looked at Harry and Hermione, almost apologetically. "I'll get her out of here. You two go on ahead."

Harry nodded and he took off in the direction of the shouting, Hermione following close behind. They didn't bother to try staying quiet as they sloshed through the water and up the river bank towards the fracas. As they got closer, they could hear more curses being shouted and small crashes as those spells hit either their intended target or some inanimate object in its way. A jet of red light bounced off a tree by Harry's right side and exploded from its force, showering Harry and Hermione in splinters. Hermione covered her head and ducked behind a tree to keep from being caught by another rogue hex. She turned to look over her shoulder to examine the battle. Tonks was dueling with a Death Eater Hermione had never seen before, his face was scarred beyond recognition; nasty gashes from previous encounters marred his cheeks and a large chunk was missing from his nose, almost matching Moody's, but much more grotesque. Moody was around the corner of a nearby farmhouse, shooting spells at two more Death Eaters whose backs were to Hermione. Lupin was the closest to where she stood, fighting the Death Eater whom Hermione recognized as Avery. Hermione took a deep breath and left the shelter of the tree to stand behind Lupin, casting an effective Impedimenta that caught Avery right in the chest. Lupin turned in surprise, his face mixed both with gratitude and shock, just in time to see Harry launching himself at the Death Eater confronting Tonks a few feet away. Hermione made towards the two Death Eaters moving closer to Moody when another chorus of soft pops were heard around the clearing.

"Avada Kadavra!" A jet of green light narrowly missed Harry as Tonks dove at his ankles, successfully knocking him to the ground and out of the way. Three more Death Eaters had appeared amongst them; the night cloaking their faces with only the moon glinting off their masks. Lupin grabbed Hermione's shoulder as he ran past her.

"Get out of here!" he shouted, diving for Harry and pulling him back into the darkness of the trees.

Hermione turned on her heels and started running for the woods, crashing through a throng of nettles as she went. Her ankles began to sting and she looked behind her to see Tonks running in her wake, turning every now and then to throw a jinx over her shoulder at the Death Eater following them, the same one she had been fighting moments ago.

Hermione turned to run up a hill that led deeper into the forest. Jumping over a fallen log, she had only barely noticed, she heard a muffled shout behind her immediately followed by a crunching sound that grated on her ears. Hermione slowed enough to turn around and see Tonks sprawled on the ground, her face full of dirt. She hadn't seen the log, and her foot was twisted in an awkward position. Hermione turned and started back when Tonks looked up again.

"Run!" Tonks yelled, seeing Hermione coming back for her. "Don't worry about me! Go!" She shouted again, twisting to look over her back just in time to deflect a hex of the misshapen Death Eater chasing them.

Hermione turned again and ran toward the forest, darkness looming around her as the trees grew thicker. After several minutes her foot caught on a bared root which sent her flying forward. A surprised "Oh!" escaped her lips as her body met with the ground. She lay still for several minutes, listening for movement of anyone following her. When the silence began to press upon her more than her fear, she got up and brushed the dirt from her robes. Her hair had bits of leaves clinging to it and her hands were scrapped from the impact of her fall. She pulled out her wand and muttered "Lumo..." when it went flying from her hands.

"Expelliarmus!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	3. Hoist with Your Own Petard

_All allusion phrases and their meanings were found at ._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

CHAPTER 3

_"Hoist with your own petard" - Injured by the device that you intended to use to injure others. _

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The first thought Draco had was that they had found him at last. 'They' being either Death Eaters or Aurors, he wasn't sure, but he didn't care. They had come to kill him in the forest, that much he knew, and he wasn't going down without a fight.

He had begun to creep towards the sounds of footsteps in an attempt to take his closest captor by surprise when an upturned root sent them sprawling clumsily through the air.

"Expelliarmus!"

The wand of the person who had been chasing him flew to his left hand, and he used the already lit tip to shine upon its owner.

Hermione's bushy hair blocked her face from his view at first, and for a moment Draco thought he was hallucinating. From behind, he could see the curvature of the person was female and her shapely legs sprawled out on the dirt floor of the woods. Slowly, she turned around and moved the mass of frizzy curls away from a heart shaped face. Draco was lost in the image for a moment as recognition stole over him.

Hemione Granger. Hermione Mudblood-Know-It-All Granger was at his feet, helpless, wandless, and frightened as a rabbit in a fox hole.

Frightened eyes searched the darkness around Hermione for a view of her captor and a smile crept its way across Draco's lips as the thought of his reward flew through his mind. At last he had caught a break! Granger, the best friend of Potter and Weasley, teacher favorite and, above all else, desperately hunted by the Death Eaters; She was his for the taking! Finally! This was his salvation, his chance to fix the blunders of the last few months and the key to his return to glory!

"Well, well, well...What have we here?"

Every muscle in Hermione's body stiffened at the sound of the voice. Like oil flowing through water, and just as deadly.

She knew that voice.

"Malfoy," she breathed through parted lips. It wasn't a question.

Hermione heard him mutter something as Draco brought her lit wand closer to his own face, now cracked in an evil smile. Hermione let a terrified gasp escape her. The Draco Malfoy she remembered had had shiny blonde hair and clean, pressed robes. His face had been flawless and, although he had never been overweight, had also been full and healthy looking, with eyes that shone like polished silver.

This Malfoy, the man who stood in front of her, was none of these things.

Hermione took in the sight of his skin stretched taught across his face, so much that it reminded her of one of the bare skulls sitting in the back of Snape's potions closet. His eyes were a dead, lifeless shade of grey, and his hair had grown out in a dishevelled manner. Small clumps of dirt and bracken clung to the almost browned strands of hair surrounding his cheekbones. She could see the faint outline of his other arm still pointing towards her with his own wand clenched tightly in a hand that looked too much like a skeleton's wrapped in leathery skin and warped from famine.

Draco twitched. He watched as her eyes roamed over his face, took in the sight of what he was. He watched as the shock melted away to...

Draco dropped both wands and in a moment had crossed the few feet between them and slapped her, the sound echoing faintly in the darkness.

"You bitch! Don't you...you dare..." He grabbed her clothes and lifted her slightly, shaking her as he half shouted through the whisper of his rage. "Don't you DARE pity me!"

Hermione cringed slightly at the sour smell of his breath brushing against her skin. She turned away in disgust and fear as she felt his grip tighten on her robes before throwing her back on the ground. She felt the air being knocked out of her as he kicked her in the stomach, the force causing Hermione to roll onto her back as he beat her.

Gasping for air between kicks, a small light caught the corner of Hermione's eye. Her wand! Malfoy hadn't moved to pick it up yet. Hermione braced herself against his foot once more before lunging across the bare dirt floor for the small light. Draco's leg swung at empty air and his brow furrowed in a moment's confusion before Hermione's hair caught in the light of the wand laying on the ground. He screamed and lunged after her, landing somewhere on top of Hermione and reaching for the wand himself. They fought and scratched at each other, knocking the wand further away and rolling towards it at the same time. Muffled cries rang out into the night as they fought one another for dominance.

Draco punched below him, his fist coming in contact with what felt like a nose, a soft crack and Hermione's moan of pain followed to prove him right. He reached out for the wand again, feeling her trying to kick and push him in the opposite direction. Draco used his knee to kick her again; the wand was so close...

"LEVICORPUS!"

Draco felt a pull from behind his navel and immediately heard a long ripping sound as his left hand remained clenched around a piece of Hermione's robes as he flew several feet into the air. The motion stopped abruptly about twenty feet from where he and Hermione had been lying. He looked down, seething at the darkness below him and twisting forcefully in the air to gain purchase of nearby tree branch.

Hermione still had her wand arm pointed directly above her. She gasped for air through her mouth, ignoring the painful pounding around her nose. She closed her eyes briefly to shut out the look of pure outrage on Draco's face as he glared down at her and the wand he hadn't reached fast enough. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she fought against the sobs threatening to tear through her chest.

Slowly, she moved her left arm against the earth and pushed until she was able to sit up again. She held Draco in the same position with her right arm while pushing and grunting against the dirt floor to the nearest tree, finally leaning against the trunk to catch her breath again. His wand was at an arm's reach and she grappled for it for a few moments, trying to keep from toppling over, and finally wrapping her bloodied fingers around its polished wood. It buzzed in annoyance at her, not recognizing the witch as its owner, so she placed it in her lap to keep it silent.

When her heart began to beat at a more normal rate, Hermione registered the quiet of the woods surrounding her. She couldn't hear the fight anymore in the town below. Hermione gulped lungfuls of air through her mouth in an attempt to quiet the wheezing sound strangling out of her and strained her ears to listen again, but heard nothing. Panic washed over her. What had happened? Where were Tonks and Harry and Ron? Were there still Death Eaters out there? Could she even make it back to the shop by herself like this?

Opening her eyes, she came face to face again with Draco Malfoy, still suspended in mid-air, and looking more bored than angry now. He had stopped thrashing and hung like a kitten being held in its mother's teeth. The scene would have been comical if the two weren't covered in bruises and blood. Hermione's stare hardened as she thought of what to do.

"I'mg going to leth you downg gnow." The restriction of air through her nose made everything sound strange as she watched Draco nod his head once showing he understood.

Slowly, he began to lose altitude and about six inches from the ground, she released him completely. His body, not expecting to be dropped, flopped onto the dirt, his face landing in a pile of leaves. Draco made a sound that Hermione could have translated to a 'Hmph' before pushing himself up to his knees.

"Sloppy, Granger," he said nonchalantly while brushing the dirt off his already filthy robes as though they hadn't just been wrestling each other in a death match. Hermione scowled slightly and shrugged, explaining his reaction as force-of-habit. She was too tired and scared to argue with him right now.

Draco made a note of her wand, still pointed directly at his chest, as well as his own wand in easy reach from her free hand as it lay in her lap. He moved his legs beneath him and landed back on his heels again to rest. Draco took in the sight of her torn robes and multiple cuts on her face, bruises already beginning to form beneath them. Had he done that? Her nose looked different than it had just a few moments earlier, twisted and bulbous against her skin. She looked like she was having trouble breathing, too.

For a moment, Draco felt uneasy and shocked. As though he had done something he should be feeling sorry for. If he'd experienced it even once in his life, he would have recognized the emotion as "remorse" or, to his unending horror, guilt.

His anger mounted again. Malfoy's don't feel guilty for dominating someone of lower rank. Draco clenched the piece of fabric he still held in his left hand that was once the front of Hermione's robes and considered throwing it back at her when a throng of voices filled the darkness.

"Hermione?! Hermione!"

He froze as he recognized Harry's voice amongst them. She was about to be saved... and he was about to be as good as dead in her hands. Fed to the Aurors, or worse: thrown straight into his own cell in Azkaban. He moved to get up and run, but froze again at the sight of Hermione's wand still pointed in his direction. He was trapped.

"HERMIONE??"

"Overg here!" She shouted back, relief flooding her senses. Hermione turned to look at Draco, her smile fading as she took in his reaction. The blood had drained from his face, turning him paler than even she could have believed possible. He looked as though he were already in Azkaban as his skin turned ashen in fear. The Ministry's interrogation team would starve and possibly torture him for information. The Death Eaters would try to silence him...

Without realizing she had made the decision, Hermione rolled Draco's wand across the dirt towards where he sat and let her hand drop to her side. The light at the end of her own wand pointed straight at the ground into nothingness as she counted to ten under her breath, before raising it again to the sky and sending red sparks shooting above her head. She paused once more, moving the lit wand back in the direction where Draco had last been standing.

He was already gone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

**Author's Notes:**  
Please leave a review! Thank you to all who do!  
And Thank you to my Beta, Carolib!


End file.
